France defs - 1955 allegory of "France"

I agree about the enhance, but profits may disappear. The pirating of
CDs is quite easy these days. Why buy the paper catalog when you can
have it in digital form and print it when you want to?

Perhaps I wasn't clear, Tracy
If you had a database of simple basic text strings
that accompanies a printed catalogue.

The text string would carry no images, or in depth details.
Perhaps Country of origin, value tablet and colour would be all you would
need.
You are a neophyte 12 yo collector,
you pick up a 12np India green issue with a map,
you select the search string "india12npgreen"
and the result gives you a selection of Stanley Gibbons Catalogue numbers.

You could give the cd away for free, It is only going to encourage
owners to use the SG printed catalogue.

Using Romania as possible the largest example, there are
what? 6000 issues? the matrix cannot be that large to accomodate
a relatively small database, and the catalogue supplier has all
the information already.

On Sat, 24 May 2008 09:06:09 +0800, "rodney"
wrote:



I agree about the enhance, but profits may disappear. The pirating of
CDs is quite easy these days. Why buy the paper catalog when you can
have it in digital form and print it when you want to?

Perhaps I wasn't clear, Tracy
If you had a database of simple basic text strings
that accompanies a printed catalogue.

The text string would carry no images, or in depth details.
Perhaps Country of origin, value tablet and colour would be all you would
need.
You are a neophyte 12 yo collector,
you pick up a 12np India green issue with a map,
you select the search string "india12npgreen"
and the result gives you a selection of Stanley Gibbons Catalogue numbers.

You could give the cd away for free, It is only going to encourage
owners to use the SG printed catalogue.

Using Romania as possible the largest example, there are
what? 6000 issues? the matrix cannot be that large to accomodate
a relatively small database, and the catalogue supplier has all
the information already.

Yes, in digital format. It would, however, take a large engine to be
able to accommodate some of that. Even with a text document, you'd
have to put "india" AND "12" AND "np" AND "green" to find it.

Someone "could" do it. It would probably only work for major and
specific minor issues, but not for specialties. The work would be too
large and not all-encompassing anyway. One could strip all of the
extra info out of the text and do it. It would be HUGE.

So, if they used:

Country
Decimal value
Currency type
Stamp color

.... you would get close, but not hit on many stamps. For instance,
multi-colored.

One would need to be returned page # in order to work anywhere near
efficient.

I would suggest more of a list box scenario, where a screen would be
displayed with the ability to mix and match everything, using the 4
fields above as a good start. So, instead of typing all of it
together, one can select from lists -or- type in something as well.

Country name would be small and easy. Decimal value could be typed
in, but we'd also have to think of partial values, such as 1/4.
currency type is another rather easy field. Color could get rough.
Knowing how Gibbons plays around with colors in the GB & Commonwealth
catalog, this could get a bit weird. I have found approximately 200
different color variations with the Belgian RR stamps alone, from
various catalogs. I suppose a decent list could be generated if one
were to take all the colors, sort them down and delete the duplicates.

Those would be the selection options. The rest would simply be each
stamp's rough data pulled from the digital soup they have them soaking
in. A hard part "may" be the page number, unless when stripping the
data the person doesn't get the page. There are groups of stamps per
page, as we all know.

All in all, I suppose some algorithm could be composed to strip out
this information and place it in a searchable engine.

Just some thoughts on the scheme, is all...

All in all, I suppose some algorithm could be composed to strip out
this information and place it in a searchable engine.
Just some thoughts on the scheme, is all...

Well, you could start off simply by date and value tablet.
Take the US, I would imagine the largest occuring value tablet
say 29c? or 32c? possibly a return of around 500 max.
It doesn't take much to scroll through a list, and guage a date of
production
One certainly can feel a 1950's stamp from a 1970's from a 2000

I don't know about your method, but I always break down
bags of floor sweepings via value tablet before cataloguing.

With my MSWorks database, I can get the entire Romanian
and US on one flat file for around 400Kb
You would only need the major large issuing countries of the world.

rodney wrote:

You would only need the major large issuing countries of the world.

Ahha! Do I smell discrimination here?

Tony, Champion of the Uglies

"Asia-translation"
You would only need the major large issuing countries of the world.
Ahha! Do I smell discrimination here?
Tony, Champion of the Uglies

I fear not.
The odour to which you refer, is probably eminating from that
paper bag in your office bin.
Your secretary took you out to lunch on Friday,
and as usual, you dropped your Vegemite sangers out of site.

You bring up a salient point, however.
how annoying is SG when you find an issue,
and SG advises "Type 64 of lower Hutt River" etc?
Perhaps we can include the minor entities,
such as Jammu and Kashmir, but with simple advice
as "See Indian Feudatory States Volume x"

Rodney
member of...The Uglies.

Dominique,

Why bother at all? About small shifts of phosphorescent bars? How do you
know they are just small variations if you havent' studied them properly?
Or may be you do have and while using all the coin-datés you might have
found out that there is a system in it. Also in a chronological sense...

Philatelists may be a weird race, but some at least try hard to be
original...

groetjes, Rein


Op Fri, 23 May 2008 21:01:05 +0200 schreef Dominique Stéphan
:



I always find interesting other "point de vue" about French
collection than French collectors :-)

The real question is : why bother ?

There is basically 2 types of papers :
- those what were a voluntary modification (aka the Coq by Decaris
fluorescent).
- those what are variation from the paper supplier.

Unless the variation is quite evident (for instance, Chalky
Paper on Liberty French by Delacroix stamps, although it was
likely a test for commemorative stamps), small variations
aren't so important.

I do have experience with soaked stamp (not so much) that
appears more fluorescent than the on paper stamps. So this
kind of study is more done with mint stamps, especially
"coins datés" (I think it's somewhat a French specialty,
definitive stamps don't have a plate number, although
it can sometimes be determined by margin marks, but
they do have a print date).

Modern French stamps require a non fluorescent paper, so
that overprinted phosphorescent bars are more easily seen by
the machines (and because fluorescent, whiter than white paper,
is the standard, so falsifications can be recognized from true stamps).






--
Gemaakt met Opera's revolutionaire e-mailprogramma:
http://www.opera.com/mail/

On Sat, 24 May 2008 00:34:52 -0700 (PDT), Asia-translation
wrote:

rodney wrote:

You would only need the major large issuing countries of the world.

Ahha! Do I smell discrimination here?

Yep. Maybe. I collect a lot of the little countries, but they may be
easier to handle because of less issues. Not always, of course...

On Fri, 23 May 2008 23:54:48 +0800, rodney wrote:

It still beats me why catalogue publishers dont supply a CD rom with
their books. If you had basic text strings with corresponding catalogue
numbers, you could locate any stamp the world has known in milliseconds.
It wouldn't defeat the catalogue, it would enhance the use.

Scott provides, for *sale*, PDF copies of their catalogues. You can buy
the print version, the disks (for only *slightly* less money, which is
absurd), or both for a tiny discount. The best so far IMO are the ones
from 2007: they're in color, and it's the last year without digital
rights managements on the copies. "Print" is disabled, but I think I
could defeat that.

When I put together lists, like the Mustelidae stamps or moisture-
activated booklets I've discussed , I'm using Adobe Reader's search
function. Some are missed, because the text is garbled in the internal
storage of the PDF file for some reason (such as a pair of lines having
their letters interwoven.) But to generate a first approximation, it's
very useful. I'd miss many doing a line-by-line search with my eyes, and
this way it doesn't take a year.

*Of* *course* I have a license for those electronic Scott catalogues. I
believe most stamp collectors are probably honest creatures. But the
post-2007 Scott catalogues (which were released in 2006) have a
registration process that the publisher confirms only works in Windows!
Aargh! I would be comfortable using a "cracked" version, as long as I
had a copy of the DVDs sitting in a drawer somewhere. I bought the
license, I'm not planning on distributing it, I just want to be able to
*use* it! If someone cracks the 2009 versions and offers them for
download, I'll download them and order the DVDs. If anyone points to my
piracy, I'll point to my DVDs. We'll see how far that gets me. Sounds
like "fair use" pure and simple to me.

Some specialty catalogues, such as The Bookmark catalogues, are provided
*only* on CD-ROM, and are indeed searchable, and *highly* useful,
especially being able to add bookmarks, etc.

It's the future. If the CDs/DVDs are printed as they are ordered, then a
publisher does not need to house any inventory, estimate copies ordered,
or anything else: they just need a burner and a labeler. If the catalogs
are available for *download*, the publisher just needs a web server with
a hard disk! When I buy one of Mr. Myall's excellent print catalogs, for
instance, I wonder how much is going into Mr. Myall's pocket and how much
is going to the printer, the manufacturer of the binders, etc. -- not to
mention Royal Mail, as I think I end up paying over $30 to ship the thing
to me! I want Mr. Myall to get his money, and that *may* mean there has
to be some form of digital rights management, but cutting down trees to
make paper and then flying it across an ocean is *not* a 21st-century
business model.

--
Joshua H. McGee, Los Angeles, California, USA
Member: APS, ATA, ISWSC, AFDCS, MBPC, MCC, BPS
President: http://www.penguinstamps.org
Trade?: http://www.mcgees.org/stamp-offers/

On Sat, 24 May 2008 23:43:07 GMT, Joshua McGee
wrote:

On Fri, 23 May 2008 23:54:48 +0800, rodney wrote:

It still beats me why catalogue publishers dont supply a CD rom with
their books. If you had basic text strings with corresponding catalogue
numbers, you could locate any stamp the world has known in milliseconds.
It wouldn't defeat the catalogue, it would enhance the use.

Scott provides, for *sale*, PDF copies of their catalogues. You can buy
the print version, the disks (for only *slightly* less money, which is
absurd), or both for a tiny discount. The best so far IMO are the ones
from 2007: they're in color, and it's the last year without digital
rights managements on the copies. "Print" is disabled, but I think I
could defeat that.

I wonder if one has a legit copy of Acrobat, it could be done?

On Sat, 24 May 2008 22:18:44 -0400, Tracy_Barber wrote:

"Print" is disabled, but I think I
could defeat that.

I wonder if one has a legit copy of Acrobat, it could be done?

No, simply because Adobe would honor the copy-protection it offers its
publishers.

Moscow code wizards cracked PDF encryption in 2001, which was legal in
Russia but illegal in the U.S. Adobe filed suit.

Others look like they've done it, too.

http://www.elcomsoft.com/apdfpr.html (the original)
http://www.planetpdf.com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=1532
http://www.verypdf.com/pwdremover/index.htm
http://www.ensode.net/pdf-crack.jsf (claims to be free, but times out for
me)

--
Joshua H. McGee, Los Angeles, California, USA
Member: APS, ATA, ISWSC, AFDCS, MBPC, MCC, BPS
President: http://www.penguinstamps.org
Trade?: http://www.mcgees.org/stamp-offers/